April 5, 2000 Although the U.S. government insists that it will hand him over to thecustody of his father when Juan Miguel Gonzalez arrives in the U.S.,Gonzalez has agreed to wait out the Florida relatives' appeal processwith his son in Washington, which will end in mid-May at the earliest.Whatever the final outcome of the battle over his fate, the six monthshe will have spent in the U.S. may forever have changed his life.

LM OTERO/AP